Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
- LYRA -
When Lady Bethany leads us outside to the gardens without waiting for Marcella, my stomach churns.
What if they discovered that she had snuck into my room last night? Or if they heard about our secretive alliance, even if we hadn’t agreed to anything yet?
Can I even trust Marcella Briarstone?
A shiver races down my spine at the memory of the Millton priest’s murder. Connor Briarstone had disappeared after the man’s body was discovered. The story was told countless times—used to warn people to stay inside after sunset and lock their doors and windows.
Because Connor Briarstone could’ve been anywhere.
And I’ll never forget the nights I spent tossing and turning, scared he’d break into my window and pin me down before stripping me of my clothes.
And once I was bare beneath him, he would take his time in cutting me open from the hollow of my throat down to my belly, then pry open my innards to retrieve my lungs and lay them on my bleeding chest. Watching me struggle until my last breath escaped my pained lips, just as it had been done to the priest.
Shaking my head to clear the brutal thought out of my mind, I slow my breath by glancing at the peonies we pass in the gardens. A small smile comes to my lips knowing who planted them there. Who tended them into such a stunning array.
As I rake my gaze across the rest of the flower beds, I bite my lip to fruitlessly keep from imagining Cyrus on his knees, hair held back in a bun. Sleeves pushed up to his elbows as he’s bent over a flower bed. Tilling the soil. Ripping out old weeds and rocks.
Lady Bethany leads us toward the back of the gardens and up a few stone steps to a grassy clearing surrounded by trees and shrubbery. “Take a seat, girls.”
We all settle down, positioning ourselves in a circle.
“Today’s lesson will be that of patience. Of stillness.” Lady Bethany walks first to Aelia, who’s on my right. “Everyone shall hold out their hands and rest them on their knees.”
We all follow the instruction, and Lady Bethany digs into a bag at her hip before placing something in Aelia’s palms. She moves to me next, placing tiny red berries in both of my hands, then moving around the rest of the group.
She sits in the middle, securing the flap on her bag. “Your test begins…now.”
We all sit in silence, only disturbed by a soft breeze lifting the leaves on the trees. Minutes tick by, and I glance from woman to woman. Wondering what this so-called test is about. While also wondering where Marcella is.
An electric-blue butterfly floats by, its wings tipped in an iridescent sheen that catches the sunlight as it flies. It's halfway through the circle when it cuts right, then circles around our group before stopping before me. It drops down to land right on the tip of my ring finger.
Not a butterfly at all.
A small dragon with butterfly wings.
Its small blue head snaps to me. Beady little black eyes regard me for a long moment before it crawls down my finger to the berries in my palm.
It nudges one until it rolls over, then sniffs before opening its jaws and swallowing the berry. I watch in frozen fascination as it moves about my palm. Another one, this time sunset orange, comes and lands on my other palm.
I’ve never known dragons to be anything other than fearsome creatures. Yet as I watch these dainty things on my hands, glancing around to see more floating about our circle, a small grin lifts my lips.
Aelia’s soft giggle catches my attention beside me, and out of the corner of my eye there’s a yellow dragon with butterfly wings rolling around on her palm before it’s startled and flies away. A majority of the other women have none on them. Some are too fearful, while others are too eager.
A flutter of air tickles near my ear, and I try not to flinch against it. A sniff brushes near my ear, before small feet climb up my hair onto the top of my head.
I breathe slowly, as to not frighten them. Keeping my head still. The first blue one rubs a cheek against my finger, now that it’s consumed all the berries. And the orange one on my right hand accidentally nips my palm as it eats.
Gritting my teeth, I can’t help but flinch.
All the dragons on me freeze, their eyes snapping to me and widening. I close my eyes.
Don’t move. Don’t move.
After a few moments, their small patters against my skin resume. Another minute passes, and I open my eyes again. Everyone’s eyes are on me as more small dragons land on my forearms, my shoulders, my head.
Lady Bethany claps, and all of them lift and flutter away in a cloud of vibrant oranges, blues, yellows, greens, and purples.
“Well done,” she says, but her eyes are mostly on me. “You may all rise.”
We stand, and I gaze off at the treetops where they disappear. Feeling for the first time a deep sense of curiosity for the little creatures.
Lady Bethany leads us out of the clearing and back to the main gardens. We walk past a path that ends distantly in rose bushes. I slow my pace, attention narrowing in toward the end of it, until I pause.
“What?” Aelia asks. Flicking her blue eyes from my face to the path as the rest of the women tread ahead down another path. “What is it?”
A scream snaps into my head for a quick second, followed by a growl. Flashes of blue roses. White eyes.
“You cannot run from me.”
Some unexplainable force tugs me forward down that path. Almost dragging me away from Aelia until I take a small, dizzy step back to defy it.
The steady beat in my skull returns again.
Pound. Pound. Pound.
“Lyra?” Aelia’s voice sounds like it’s underwater. Her hand gently shakes my shoulder. “Lyra?”
The tunneled path of ivy trellises, of overgrown willow trees and flowers framing the path, begin to swirl into a blend of color.
Aelia grabs my cheek and yanks my face toward hers, “Lyra, are you alright? You look pale.”
Biting my lip, I nod. But I’m struggling to keep the heat from my skin, my head beginning to buzz. A heavy, strange tingling sings in my nerves, and I stumble as my vision begins to grow black. It feels hard to breathe.
Aelia lunges for me. Awkwardly we both fall to the floor as she attempts to catch me. My vision swims, and Aelia pulls me into her arms as the other girls ahead of us turn back at the commotion, gasping in surprise.
Lady Bethany turns to see what the fuss is about, sweeping the women out of the way to run to us. Devin appears with Marcella behind him, coming from another direction.
My eyelids are heavy, dragging closed as my stomach roils.
“Lyra, can you hear me!” Aelia says in a panicked voice. She shakes my shoulder. Her voice is growing distant. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her! She got pale, and suddenly dropped!”
“Let me have her,” Devin urges. Hands shift about, my body flopping limply as I struggle to keep my breathing steady. “Lyra, listen to me. I need you to open your eyes. Are you hurt?”
But peeling my eyes open feels as hard as if I were trying to lift mountains. I part my lips to respond, but it’s as far as my strength will allow.
My sense of gravity shifts, and arms hold me tight. I’m pressed against something hard. Metal. The sounds of all the flustered girls fade away, and the last thing to go is the heavy steps against the cobblestones. Right before I’m lost to oblivion, I manage to peek open my eyes.
Devin’s carrying me, his armor shining golden in the daylight. He looks down at me, eyebrows pinched as he mouths something I can’t comprehend.
I slip into my darkness.